NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Economy of Swaziland

Swaziland ranks among the poorest states in Africa. Most of the high-level economic activity is in the hands of non-Africans, but ethnic Swazis are becoming more active. Small entrepreneurs are moving into middle management positions. 70% of Swazis live in rural areas and are being ravaged by drought and a resulting food crisis that threatens hundreds of thousands with hunger. The past few years have seen wavering economic growth, which has been exacerbated by the economy's inability to create new jobs at the same rate that new job seekers enter the market. This is due largely in part to the country's population growth rate that strains the natural heritage and the country's ability to provide adequate social services, such as health care and education. Overgrazing, soil depletion, drought, and floods are persistent problems. 2004 Swaziland has acknowledges for the first time that it has one of the highest Aids rates in the world, with almost 40% of adults infected with the HIV (see AIDS_in_Africa). Prime Minister Themba Dlamini has declared a humanitarian crisis due to the combined effect of drought and land degradation, increasing poverty and HIV/Aids. The United Nations special envoy on AIDS Stephen Lewis said “Swaziland stands alone with the world's highest rate of HIV infection after nearby Botswana made headway against the deadly pandemic” Africa is the worlds second-largest continent in both area and population, after Asia. ... A social worker is a person employed in the administration of charity, social service, welfare, and poverty agencies, advocacy, or religious outreach programs. ... Health care or healthcare is an industry associated with the the prevention, treatment, and management of illness along with the promotion of mental, physical and spiritual well-being through the services offered by the medical and allied health professions. ... A drought is an extended period where water availability falls below the statistical requirements for a region. ... A flood (in Old English flod, a word common to Teutonic languages; compare German Flut, Dutch vloed from the same root as is seen in flow, float) is an overflow of water, an expanse of water submerging land, a deluge. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... AIDS education at a school in Uganda. ... Absalom Themba Dlamini is the current Prime Minister of Swaziland. ... The United Nations, or UN, is an international organization established in 1945 and now made up of 191 states. ... The Red Ribbon symbol is used internationally to represent the fight against AIDS. AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, rarely written Aids) is a disease characterized by the destruction of the human immune system. ... HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a retrovirus that infects cells of the human immune system. ...

Nearly 60% of Swazi territory is held by the Crown in trust of the Swazi nation. The balance is privately owned, much of it by foreigners. The questions of land use and ownership remains a very sensitive one. For Swazis living on rural homesteads, the principal occupation is either subsistence farming or livestock herding. Culturally, cattle are important symbols of wealth and status, but they are being used increasingly for milk, meat, and profit.

Swaziland enjoys well-developed road links with South Africa. It also has railroads running east to west and north to south. The older east-west link, called the Goba line, makes it possible to export bulk goods from Swaziland through the Port of Maputo in Mozambique. Until recently, most of Swaziland's imports were shipped through this port. Conflict in Mozambique in the 1980s diverted many Swazi exports to ports in South Africa. A north-south rail link, completed in 1986, provides a connection between the Eastern Transvaal (now Mpumalanga) rail network and the South African ports of Richards Bay and Durban. Goba is a town in the Somali Region of Ethiopia, located in the south-central part of that country. ... Maputo is the capital of Mozambique. ... Richards Bay is South Africas largest harbour. ... Durban is a vibrant cosmopolitian city in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. ...

The sugar industry, based solely on irrigated cane, is Swaziland's leading export earner and private-sector employer. Soft drink concentrate (a U.S. investment) is the country's largest export earner, followed by wood pulp and lumber from cultivated pine forests. Pineapple, citrus fruit, and cotton are other important agricultural exports. Binomial name Ananas comosus (L.) Merr. ... Species & major hybrids Species Citrus maxima - Pomelo Citrus medica - Citron Citrus reticulata - Mandarin & Tangerine Major hybrids Citrus x aurantifolia - Lime Citrus x aurantium - Bitter Orange Citrus x bergamia - Bergamot Citrus x hystrix - Kaffir Lime Citrus x ichangensis - Ichang Lemon Citrus x limon - Lemon Citrus x limonia - Rangpur Citrus x paradisi... Cotton is a soft fiber that grows around the seeds of the cotton plant, a shrub native to the tropical and subtropical regions of both the Old World and the New World. ...

Swaziland mines coal and diamonds for export. There also is a quarry industry for domestic consumption. Mining contributes about 1.8% of Swaziland's GDP each year but has been declining in importance in recent years.

Recently, a number of industrial firms have located at the industrial estate at Matsapha near Manzini. In addition to processed agricultural and forestry products, the fast-growing industrial sector at Matsapha also produces garments, textiles, and a variety of light manufactured products. The Swaziland Industrial Development Company (SIDC) and the Swaziland Investment Promotion Authority (SIPA) have assisted in bringing many of these industries to the country. Government programs encourage Swazi entrepreneurs to run small and medium-sized firms. Tourism also is important, attracting more than 424,000 visitors annually (mostly from Europe and South Africa).

From the mid-1980s foreign investment in the manufacturing sector boosted economic growth rates significantly. Since mid-1985, the depreciated value of the currency has increased the competitiveness of Swazi exports and moderated the growth of imports, generating trade surpluses. During the 1990s, the country often ran small trade deficits. South Africa and the European Union are major customers for Swazi exports. The United States is a significant market for Swazi sugar, a market that would presumably extend to textiles should Swaziland become a beneficiary of the African Growth Opportunity Act.

Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia, and the Republic of South Africa form the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), where import duties apply uniformly to member countries. Swaziland, Lesotho, Namibia, and South Africa also are members of the Common Monetary Area (CMA) in which repatriation and unrestricted funds are permitted. Swaziland issues its own currency, the lilangeni (plural: emalangeni), which is at par with the South African rand.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $4.8 billion (2002 est.), $4.2 billion (1999 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $4,400 (2002 est.), $4,200 (1999 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 17% (2001 est.), 10% (1997 est.)
industry: 44% (2001 est.), 48% (1997 est.)
services: 39% (2001 est.), 42% (1997 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 1%
highest 10%: 50.2% (1995)

Labor force - by occupation: private sector about 70%, public sector about 30%

Budget:
revenues: $448 million (FY01/02), $400 million (FY96/97)
expenditures: $506.9 million, including capital expenditures of $147 million (FY01/02), $450 million, including capital expenditures of $115 million (FY96/97)

Industries: mining (coal and asbestos), wood pulp, sugar, soft drink concentrates, textile and apparel Asbestos (Greek a-, not; sbestos, extinguishable) is a group of fibrous metamorphic minerals. ...

Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 58% (2001), 48.81% (1998)
hydro: 42% (2001), 51.19% (1998)
nuclear: 0% (2001, 1998)
other: 0% (2001,1998)

Electricity - consumption: 962.9 million kWh (2001), 1.078 billion kWh (1998)

Electricity - imports: 639 million kWh (2001), 687 million kWh (1998)
note: imports about 60% of its electricity from South Africa (1998)

Agriculture - products: sugar cane, cotton, maize, tobacco, rice, citrus, pineapples, sorghum, peanuts; cattle, goats, sheep Species Ref: ITIS 42058 as of 2004-05-05 Sugarcane is one of six species of a tall tropical southeast Asian grass (Family Poaceae) having stout fibrous jointed stalks whose sap at one time was the primary source of sugar. ... Cotton is a soft fiber that grows around the seeds of the cotton plant, a shrub native to the tropical and subtropical regions of both the Old World and the New World. ... Species Zea diploperennis Zea luxurians Zea nicaraguensis Zea perennis References ITIS 42268 2002-09-22 Sorting Zea names This article is about the staple food. ... Species N. glauca N. longiflora N. rustica N. sylvestris N. tabacum Ref: ITIS 30562 as of 2002-08-28 Tobacco () is a broad-leafed plant of the nightshade family, indigenous to North and South America, whose dried and cured leaves are often smoked (see tobacco smoking) in the form of... Species References ITIS 41975 2002-09-22 Rice (genus Oryza) is a plant of the grass family which is a dietary staple of more than half of the worlds human population. ... Species & major hybrids Species Citrus aurantium Citrus limetta Citrus maxima - Pomelo Citrus medica - Citron Citrus reticulata - Mandarin & Tangerine Major hybrids Citrus x aurantifolia - Lime Citrus x hystrix - Kaffir Lime Citrus x ichangensis - Ichang Lemon Citrus x limon - Lemon Citrus x limonia - Rangpur Citrus x paradisi - Grapefruit Citrus x sinensis - Sweet... Binomial name Ananas comosus (L.) Merr. ... Species Sorghum × almum Sorghum almum Sorghum bicolor Sorghum caudatum Sorghum × drummondii Sorghum halepense Sorghum propinquum References ITIS 42106 2002-09-22 Sorghum (Sorghum vulgare or Sorghum bicolor) is a grass (Family Poaceae), the grain of which is used for food, fodder, and the production of alcoholic beverages. ... Binomial name Arachis hypogaea L. The Peanut (Arachis hypogaea) is a species in the pea family Fabaceae native to South America. ... Binomial name Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 Rainbow arching over a paddock of cattle Cattle are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. ... A goat is an animal in the genus Capra, which consists of nine species: the Ibex, the West Caucasian Tur, the East Caucasian Tur, the Markhor, and the Wild Goat. ... Binomial name Ovis aries Linnaeus, 1758 A sheep is any of several woolly ruminant quadrupeds, but most commonly the Domestic Sheep (Ovis aries), which probably descends from the wild moufflon of south-central and south-west Asia. ...

Exports - commodities: soft drink concentrates, sugar, wood pulp, cotton yarn, refrigerators, citrus and canned fruit

Exports - partners: South Africa 72%, EU 14.2%, Mozambique 3.7%, US 3.5%, UK (1999), South Africa 74%, EU 12%, Mozambique 5%, US, North Korea (1997)

Imports - commodities: motor vehicles, machinery, transport equipment, foodstuffs, petroleum products, chemicals

Imports - partners: South Africa 88.8%, EU 5.6%, Japan 0.6%, Singapore 0.4% (1999), South Africa 83%, EU 6%, Japan, UK, Singapore (1997)

Exchange rates: emalangeni (E) per US$1 - 10.5407 (2002), 8.6092 (2001), 6.9398 (2000), 6.1087 (1999), 5.4807 (1998), 4.6032 (1997), 4.2706 (1996), 3.6266 (1995); note - the Swazi lilangeni is at par with the South African rand

Fiscal year: 1 April - 31 March April 1 is the 91st day of the year (92nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 274 days remaining. ... March 31 is the 90th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (91st in Leap years), with 275 days remaining, as the final day of March. ...